Crypto Primer

Cryptocurrencies Summarized

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BITCOIN(BTC)

the original blockchain created by Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcoin

The original blockchain released by Satoshi Nakamoto in Jan 2009.

Every single computer/node in the network stores and validates every transaction ever made. The entire history of the network is stored as the blockchain and kept by every full node. The redundancy means data is uncorruptable without a change being done to more than 51% of the network at around the same time. Bitcoin creates an ecosystem where financial transactions do not require trust in third parties like banks and governments.

Bitcoin has a max supply of 21million bitcoins. New coins are created by miners(computers/nodes) through hashing(solving math problems based on previous answers), which validates transations and secures the network.

Ethereum

The first smart-contract blockchain created and release by Vitalik Buterin and 3 co-founders in July 2015.

a smart contract is a set of conditions and consequences that are verifyable and enforceable by the Ethereum network(e.g.If node A sends 1 Ether, return 3 made-up-token to node A). The Ethereum token is meant to be used as 'gas', which serves as a fee for the Ethereum network and facilitates interactions with smart contracts. Ether also functions as a currency.

Among the big updates planned for the near future are Sharding(which lets a random portion of the network validate a random portion of the transactions, allowing the network to handle a much higher volume of traffic), Raiden(near zero fee instant transaction for payments), and switching the network from the current proof of work system(network secured by mining) to proof of stake(where token holders lockup their tokens for a fix amount of time for a chance to validate new transactions and be rewarded with newly minted tokens).

Ripple

A banking industry focused cryto asset created, refined, and released by Ryan Fugger, Jed McCaleb, and RippleLab in 2012.

Ripple focuses on facilitating faster and more secure transfering of funds(especially between banks and other financial institutions). The ripple token is sent along with money transfer instruction between institutions as a kind of authenticity seal(similar to wax seals on important letters in older times). Ripple transactions are validated by all of the nodes at Ripple to ensure authenticity and accuracy. Ripple nodes network is not open to the public.

Bitcoin Cash

One of the 2 resulting Bitcoin forks of 2017.

Every single computer/node in the network stores and validates every transaction ever made. The entire history of the network is stored as the blockchain and kept by every full node. The redundancy means data is uncorruptable without a change being done to more than 51% of the network at around the same time.

Bitcoin has a max supply of 21million bitcoins. New coins are created by miners(computers/nodes) through hashing(solving math problems based on previous answers), which validates transations and secures the network.

Unlike Bitcoin Core, bitcoin Cash has an 8MB blocksize (instead of <2mb). Bitcoin cash also declined the use of Segregated Witness(segwit)-which removes part of the transaction signature to reduce network congestion-in favor of scaling on chain and proven security.

Litecoin

A Bitcoin fork with the aim to 'be the silver to the Bitcoin gold' released by Charlie Lee in October 2011.

Lite coins started as an almost identical fork of Bitcoin with the goal of being more agile. The primary difference that enabled the initial agility was a faster block time(a new block was mined every 2.5 minutes vs Bitcoin's 10 minutes), a larger supply and a different hashing algorithm.

A blockchain that pioneered built-in governance and the masternode concept

Dash

A distant fork of Bitcoin and a pioneer of built in blockchain governance. Dash was created by Evan Duffield in Jan 2014 as Xcoin. It was rebranded into Darkcoin, then Dash in 2015.

Dash pioneered the idea of built-in governance and masternodes.

Built-in Governace: ~10% of all mining fees are set aside for the funding of the Dash foundation for further development and marketing. Proposed changes to the network are voted on chain by the network of masternodes.

Masternodes: Can be set up by anyone/group with >1000 Dash and a dedicated IP address. In addition to regular transactions through traditional miners, masternodes fascilitate Instant send(complete transaction in ~4 seconds) and Darksend(masternode performs coin mixing-similar to tumblers-to make transactions harder to trace).

A Japan based blockchain that pioneered the idea of Proof of Importance

NEM(New Economic Movement)

NEM is the original Proof of Importance(POI) blockchain/cryptocurrency. Launch in June 2014 by the NEM foundation.

Similar to Proof of Stake(POS) cryptocurrencies, NEM allow holders with a large enough number of coins(in this case, 10,000) to collect interest like rewards(called Harvesting in NEM). A stakers chance of harvesting NEM tokens is determined by their Proof of Importance(POI) score. This score is determined by the number of other NEM accounts they interact with, how active they are, and how active their transaction counterparts are.

NEM has a total supply of 8,999,999,999, with no plans for more to be created. Transactions fees are redistrubuted to random Harvestors, who stake their holdings to validate transactions, with preference towards wallets of 'higher importance'

Monero

Monero is a privacy focused cryptocurrency. Every transaction is private by default, which means there is no need to send in special mode for privacy, and no spending stands out because it is private.

Monero achieves privacy through 4 key technologies:

Ring Signature -hides where the currency is sent from by combining the signature of sender with other randomly selected addressesRing CT(confidential transaction)-hide the value of transactionsKovri - a work-in-progress protocol to hide the broadcasting of tranactions on the network.Stealth Address - hide the end destination of transactions

Although Monero does not have a max supply, after 18.3millions Moneros have been mined, there will only be a tail-emission of 0.3xmr per minute to keep the ecosystem robust and secure.

IOTA

A non-blockchain network that uses a Direct Acyclic Graph(AKA DAG or Tangle). A DAG is not technically a blockchain, as every node validates transactions from a select few other nodes(whereas most blockchains require every node to validate and record every transaction). IOTA nodes perform a small amount of mining-like activity in exchange for no-fee transactions.

The benefits of this setup is that Iota actually gets faster as more nodes & transactions join the network(which is the opposite of traditional blockchains). The tradeoff is a slight reduction in security - a 33% attack is required to damage the DAG v.s. ~51% on a tranditional blockchain.

IOTA aims to be the currency of choice for the Internet of Things ecosystem. The no fee feature of the network makes micro payments between machines and people feasible.

Ethereum Classic

Ethereum Classic(ETC) is a fork of Ethereum that came into existence shortly after the DAO(decentralized autonomous organization) hack took place on the Ethereum network. ETC functions very similarly to Ethereum - with smart contracts, proof of work, etc.

Some time after the Ethereum community decided to hardfork and revert the damage done in the DAO hack, the ETC community decided that it is important to protect the unalterable, immutable, and absolute nature of the blockchain. The group decided to branch off - creating the ETC chain.

A Thailand based currency that aims to decentralize banking and put the individual in control.

OmiseGo

OmiseGO is a currency, built on the Ethereum platform, that aims to help individuals and institutions conduct financial transactions. The network allows payments, remittances, payroll deposits, B2B commerce, supply-chain finance, loyalty programs, asset management + trading, and other on-demand services, to be run in a decentralized, frictionless, and inexpensive way.

With Omise(the company behind OmiseGo) being an establish business with many ties to the industry in Thailand, it is well positioned to be a bridge that creates better fluidity between crypto, national currencies, and merchants.

NEO

NEO was created as Antshares in 2014. It is China's first open source blockchain. There is a max supply of 100 million NEO tokens and individual NEO tokens cannot be subdivided into smaller subunits.

NEO is 1 of 2 native tokens on the NEO blockchain(the other being GAS). NEO allows developers to create smart contracts in such popular languages as Java, C#, and GO. Interaction on the NEO blockchain and smart contracts on it are paid for with GAS(which is listed on several exchanges as a separate currency). GAS is generated by the NEO wallet in accordance to the amount of NEO held in it and how long it's held.

NEO operates on the Byzentine Fault Tolerance and "rewards" holders of the currency in return for validating transactions on the network, similar to Proof of Stake currencies.

Bitconnect

*Bitconnect seem to focus mainly on advertising profit opportunities and offer little technical innovation. Please carefully do your own research if you choose to invest.

Bitconnect is a hybrid proof of work/proof of stake cryptocurrency where new bitconnect coins are minted through mining early on and shifted to mostly staking(locking up the coins you hold in a wallet) shortly after.

The currency was launches through an Initial Coin Offering(ICO) on November 16, 2016, where 4.8million premined BCC(17% of total supply) were offered in exchange for Bitcoins. There is a max supply of 28 million BCC.

Lisk

Lisk is a smart contract platform blockchain built from the ground up in pure Javascript. This network aims to make the blockchain and smart contract technology more readily available to huge existing javascript developers community. Applications built on Lisk exist as side chains, which is paired with its own token for transfer of value.

A singapore based smart-contract platform that can interoperate with smart contracts on other platforms.

Qtum

Qtum is a Singapore based cryptocurrency launched through a Initial Coin Offering(ICO) in March 2016. The platform is designed for smart contracts that are interoperable with Ethereum smart contracts, Bitcoin gateways, as wells as other potential virtual machines(blockchain/networks like Ethereum that can interpret and enforce smart contracts).

Tether

Tether is Hong Kong based cryptocurrency, launched in early 2015, designed to be a stable coin that is always valued at 1 US dollar. The network uses the Bitcoin blockchain, Proof of Reserves, and other audit methods to prove that issued tokens are fully backed and reserved.

A privacy focused currency with the option to create completely anonymous transactions

ZCash

ZCash is a pioneer of zero-knowledge crypto protocol - or zk-SNARKs (zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge). The currency was launched by the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company in September 2016.

ZCash allows for 2 different types of wallets to be created- t-address wallets which create faster, transparent transactions, and z-address wallets, which allows for shielded transactions that hides the sender, recepient, and value of transactions on the blockchain.

Like Bitcoin, Zcash has a max supply of 21 million with block reward that halves approximately every 4 years.

Platform and currency that lets users interact with other blockchain through its SmartBridge technology.

Ark

Ark is a fork of Lisk that launched as a crowdsale in December 2016. Ark is seeded with 125million tokens with 2 Ark tokens created as Delagated Proof of Stake reward every block(8 seconds).

The Ark network heroes its SmartBridge technology where token holders can interact with other blockchains(ex. trigger Ethereum smart contracts or issue a record entry in Factom) right from the Ark system. Additionally, Ark allows users to easily clone and add parameters to its blockchain to create their own.

A graphene blockchain with no transaction fees and ability to ID by username instead of hash address.

Steem

Steem was launch in March 2016, with steemit - a reddit like community powered by steem - being launched 2 months after. Steem was founded by Ned Scott, CEO, and Daniel Larimer, CTO. The latter is also a founder of the Bitshares blockchain. Steem is build on the Graphene technology platform developed by the Cryptonomex group. Other Graphene blockchains include Bitshares and EOS.

The Steem blockchain is powered by its 3 native tokens - STEEM, STEEM backed dollars(SBD), and the steem power token. There is no transaction fee and the network is capable of 100,000 tx/sec.

STEEM - generated in block reward as incentive for witness nodessteem backed dollar (SBD) - generated by locking up generated STEEM from block reward into a smart contract as collateral. holders can withdraw $1 worth of STEEM by destroying SBD at any time. Everyone actually gets paid in SBD generated from 5% yearly inflation.steem power token - (not transferable) created by locking STEEM and can withdraw to STEEM. Gives holder voting power on the blockchain to elect witnesses nodes who secure it and allocate funding like DAO. It takes time to unlock entire amount to ensure malicious votes that hurt value of platform result in personal losses as well.

Steemit is a Reddit like block explorer powered by STEEM. The network powers and incentivizes participation on its platform with its native tokens. Steem tokens are earned through participation on its social network. Users are rewarded for both creating and upvoting contents, especially ones that become more popular.

A china based blochchain and direct acyclic graph hybrid that aims to be the bridge between the different types of tokens in the crypto space.

Hshares/Hcash

Hcash "Hypercash"is a (China based?) blockchain and Direct Acyclic Graph(DAG) hybrid currency launched in August 2017. HSR has a maximum supply that stays under 84 million.

This ambitious project aims to incorporate many of the best ideas to date from the crytocurrency ecosystem. The network is currently powered by hybrid proof of work and stake. HSR Has built in Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) governance, where stake holders vote on future development of the network. The network is also built with 2 sidechains - one merkle tree based chain that operates as a blockchain, and the other built as a DAG - with the goal of being a bridge between the two classes of crypto assets. Additionally, HSR plans to incorporate zk-SNARKS, which will allow anonymous tranctions.

A graphene blockchain with a built in decentralized exchange that aim to be the fastest cryptocurrency.

Bitshares

Bitshares is a blockchain with its own on chain decentralized exchange. Bitshare is build on the Graphene technology platform developed by the Cryptonomex group. Other Graphene blockchains include STEEM and EOS.

The decentralized exchange uses both officially issued tokens like bitusd(which is tethered to the value of the US dollar and backed by at least 2:1 locked BTS collateral in smart contracts. Investors can withdraw $1 worth of BTS by burning bitUSD at any time) as well as enabling users to create and trade their own tokens. Bitshare achieved 180,000 tx/sec transactions per second in bottleneck testing, making it one of the fastest blockchains in existence. Instead of traditional public keys, usernames are used for transaction addresses, which are more memorable and userfriendly.

Bitshares was lauched in November 2014, and released version 2 in June 2017. It is one of the first Decentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO). The network is secured through delegated proof of stake(token holders connect through -therefore voting for or firing - witness nodes, who are then rewarded with a chance to mint tokens for securing the network). There is a max supply of 3,600,572,206BTS tokens.

Bytecoin is a pioneer of the cryptonote hashing algorithm, which provided added privacy benefits

Bytecoin

Bytecoin was launched in July 2012 by a group of mostly annonymous contributors. The currency is designed to have a max supply of 184.46 billion BCN.

Bytecoin is one of the earliest non-bitcoin-fork currencies and is built with the CryptoNote hashing algorithm. CryptoNote creates added privacy by using 1-time keys that created by each transaction, making them unlinkable to past and future transactions. Additionally, Bytecoin uses Ring Signatures to mix the signature of the sender with other wallets to make it difficult to know where the transaction originated.

A generalized graphene blockchain that aims to be a blockchain powered operating system. Exists as an Ethereum token during distribution period.

Eos

EOS is a smart contract platform on a generalized form of graphene(The technology platform behind Bitshares and STEEM)that would allow anyone to make and run dapps like bts and steem. EOS is using temporary ERC20 tokens for slow distribution and simultaneous trading that simulates mining to make it prohibitively expensive to buy large % of coins (would compromise the security of any PoS based blockchain). The token was created by Block.one - a Cayman Island based company, in June 2016.

Separate (not eth) public dpos/graphene chain of EOS is expected to launch after 1 year of slow release using the snapshot of the ERC20 tokens for distribution of EOS currency. The public chain is still graphene and dpos based with currency giving voting power to electing blockchain validators and paying out as a DAO from 5% annual inflation.

EOS uses bandwidth model which gives you resource access (computation, bandwidth, storage) proportional to coins you stake and thus no transaction fees. Additionally, computation and bandwidth can be delegated to others (e.g. dapps staking coins so users can have more bandwidth and computation( Unlike steem, it's designed to be capable of parallel execution with graphene speed on each thread for operations and smart contracts giving it over millions transactions per second capability. (before was limited to single processing thread for bottleneck)

Stellar Lumens

Stellar and its native token - lumens - is a fork of Ripple, and was launched by Jeb McCaleb and Joyce Kim in 2014. The total supply of Lumens is increased by 1% every year.

Stellar.org is set up as a non-profit organization and aims to give equal banking opportunity to all and make monetary transactions across political and geographical barriers faster and easier. Stellar Lumens has a fee of .00001 XLM and transaction time between 2 to 5 seconds.

A debit card and payment system that lets users spend their cryptocurrency in the real world.

TenX

TenX was launched with an Initial Coin Offering(ICO) in June 2017 and has a total supply of 20million tokens.

TenX is a debit card, connected to a mobile TenX wallet, that lets its card holders spend cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, and ERC20 tokens with any merchant that accepts visa and mastercard. The card offers no annual fee as well as 0% exchange fee for both domestic and foreign purchases. Token holders are entitled to a portion of the network transaction fee(paid out in Ether) as a divident like reward. The token can also be spent as money if the holder chooses to do so.

A decentralized internet that eliminates centralized points of weakness.

MAIDSAFE

MAIDSAFE(Massive Array of Internet Disk Secure Access For Everyone) is the currency powering the MAIDSAFE network, which is a decentralized internet. MAIDSAFEMAID was launched in April 2014 and has a supply cap of 4.3 Billion.

The project aims to take every aspect of the internet, and decentralize them to remove centralized points of weakness (like servers). This decentralized internet-or SAFEnet - would have improved reliability, privacy, security for everyone.

Golem

Golem is an Ethereum based network that connects users who need computing power with those that have spare computer power to rent out. Golem launched with an Initial Coin Offering in October 2016. There is a max supply of 1 billion Golem Network Tokens.

Golem allows users on its network to set a price - in Golem Network Token(GNT) - for a given amout of CPU cycles, and allow those that need access to extra computing powers to purchase the amount of CPU cycles they need. Once the contract is established, the work is securely and redundantly distrubuted out to be completed.

Golem release its alpha version with the ability to complete 3D renderings, and plan to expand to other types of tasks shortly after.

decentralized prediction engine that also serves as an Oracle to broaden the usefulness of smart contracts.

Augur

Augur is a Ethereum based network that allow investors to bet on real world events like elections and sports outcomes. Augur was launched in 2015 and has a max supply of 11million REP tokens.

Virtual shares can be created for the different potential outcomes of bettable events, with the price of the different shares depending on the odds of that outcome. In a classic odds betting manner, investors of the correct outcome shares split the pot. The reporting of the outcome is done by a decentralized network of randomly chosen REP(utation) token holders, who receive a portion of the network fee in return for truthful reporting.

On the backend, the fact checked reports of these event outcomes allows the Augur network to operate as an Oracle for the Ethereum(and potentially other smart contract) networks. A smart contract is as powerful and useful as the information and outcome that it can reliably fact check, and they need to rely on oracles such as this one for off-blockchain informations like real world events.

Komodo

Komodo is the private currency arm of the SuperNet project. The token was launched in January 2017 and has a max supply cap that stays below 101 million tokens.

the Komodo network is secured by delayed Proof of Work(dPOW) - The network has a group of elected "notary nodes" that reference and notarize hashes created on the Bitcoin network to secure its own. The logic is that Bitcoin is by far the biggest and most secure network, and efforts to create a more secured one would not be worthwhile or reasonable. Delayed proof of work lets Komodo be as secure as the BTC network without the wasted electricity and investments.

Like ZCash, Komodo is capable of sending completely anonymous transactions with the implementation of ZkSnarks.

Komodo has planned, and is very close to supporting smart contracts on its network.

blockchain powered advertising that cuts out the middlemen to reward content creators and the end viewer

Basic Attention Token

Basic Attention Token(BAT) was created by Brendan Eich, creator of javascript and CEO of Mozilla. The token was launched as an Initial Coin Offering in March 2017. There is a max supply of 1.5billion tokens.

BAT aims to create a more efficient and fair advertising ecosystem where the most valuable parts - the content creator and the audience - are valued and rewarded.

The current advertising system requires advertisers to pay many layers of middle men to get to an audience who has no incentive to pay attention and may be incorrectly targeted. In the meantime, the creators and publishers of good content that attracted the audience in the first place is not valued and gets a tiny piece of the ad revenue. BAT is a system where the lion share of the ad cost(paid in BAT tokens) goes to the content creators that did the heavy lifting in attracting the audience/consumer, and rewards the rest of the tokens to consumers, who can then use the token to access premium content or donate to publishers they value.

A payment ecosystem that cuts out the high transaction fees generally charged to merchants, and passes the saving to the consumers

Metal

Metal was launched in July 2017, there is a max supply of 66,588,888 METAL tokens.

Metal aims to create a more efficient payment ecosystem by rewarding both the consumers and the merchants.

consumers on the metal network can create a FDIC insured bank account, with no fees, where they can spend their crypto assets. The consumers are rewarded with Metal tokens everytime they spend or send money. The tokens can be used to redeem services and premium features with Metal merchants or sold on exchanges.

Merchants in the Metal Pay network can take payments without the high fees charged by credit/debit card processing companies.

PIVX

PIVX is a fork of Dash launched in January 2016. The currency focuses on fair governance and distribution as well as privacy. There is no cap to the coin supply, and a little over 2.5million new tokens are created each year.

PIVX is a currency that is secure through both proof of stake(where any holder can lock up their coin for a chance to validate transactions and be rewarded with newly minted PIVX tokens) and masternodes(which require a stake of 10,000 or more PIVs, and are trusted to facilitate instant sends and coin mixing).

To further enhance the privacy aspect of the currency, PIVX is actively working on implementing zerocoin protocol, which will allow completely anonymous transactions to be generated.

Like its predecessor DASH, PIVX initially allowed only masternodes to vote on future implementations on the network. However, in 2017, the network of masternodes voted to extend the right to vote to all token holders.

Blockchain powered documentation that is dentralized and uncorruptable.

Factom

Factom, previously named Notary Chains, is a Texas based blockchain release in January 2015. The native tokens used to interact with the network are called Factoids.

Factom is blockchain powered record entry systems that allows anyone to create and add to lists, but not modify anything that has been previously entered. Being distrubuted on a blockchain means the information on Factom are redundantly stored, immutable, and uncorruptable. These attributes helps with the groups goal of creating an immutable audit trail for important information like medical records, title records, and legal agreements.

Factoids do not have a max supply cap, and 876,000 tokens are added annually. However, the tokens are burned when converted to Entry Credit, which secures a hash on the network at the point of data entry.

Nexus

Nexus is a currency launched by Colin Cantrell in 2014. The coin has no capped supply, but inflation is kept to less than 3% per year.

The Nexus network is broken up into layers that secure the network and mint new tokens through different methods. A CPU mining, GPU mining layer, and a proof of stake layer coexist to create a check and balance while deterring centralization.

Nexus is also actively exploring methods to establish a low earth orbit cube satellite network to create a truly decentralized blockchain that is accessible anywhere and rely on a decentralized network of hosts instead of centralized servers.

Veritaseum

Veritaseum is an ethereum based interface that allow users to quickly and easily create and enter into smart contract facilitated transactions. There is a max supply of the native token - Veritas -capped at 100 million.

Veritaseum aims to eliminiate the friction, inefficiencies, and high cost of working with and through traditional financial institutions. Veritaseum has a patent pending on its technology and method of creating and enforcing p2p letter of credit. Additional, the technology can open the door to transactions like collateralized loans and rentals, which previously required slow and expensive third party authorities.

Decred

Decred was launched in January 2016, and has a max supply of 21 million tokens.

The currency is designed to improve upon the troubled consensus-reaching dynamic previously seen on other crypto assets. The network is secured by a hybrid of the proof of work (where miners create hashes to validate transactions) and proof of stake (where token holders lock in or stake an amount of their holding for a chance to validate tranctions). Both groups are rewarded with a chance to find a new block and mint new tokens.

On chain governance allows the community to vote on upgrades and implementations. Adoption requires new implementations to pass a vote in 2 stages - First, the miners and stakers who secure the network adopts the upgrade containing the implementation. Second, token holders can lock in a certain amount of decred tokens to "purchase" a lottery ticket to receive a vote. If 75% or more of the tickets vote in favor of the implementation, it will pass and be adopted.

A condition based payment system and pioneer of Direct Acyclic Graph(AKA DAG or the Tangle)

Byteball

Byteball is a Direct Acyclic Graph based cryptocurrency launched on Christmas Day 2016. There is a total supply of 1 million GigaBytes, all of which were created at the launch of the network. 99% were given away freely through programs like partner merchant cash back and airdrops.

Byteball focuses on being a condition based payment system(ex. pay computer repair shop x $50 when username myusername is logged onto network x). This ability to set condition based payments opens the network to a huge range of possibilities like peer-to-peer insurance and decentralized betting.

Digix DAO

DigixDao is the Decentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO) behind the creation and operation of the DGX token - a gold backed digital token. All DGD holders can vote on proposals for the organization through on-chain ballots. Once DGX begin trading, DGD token holders will be entitled to a share of the fees associated with the trades, proportional to their holding, in perpetuity. DGD has announced intentions to create additional physical asset backed tokens(silver, commodities, etc) if the DGX token proves to be successful.

Digix DAO was launched by a singapore based group in early 2016. There is a total supply capped at 2 million tokens. DGD was the first Ethereum based on chain crowd sale.

Iconomi

Iconomi is a platform for actively managed index fund like products called Digital Asset Arrays™(DAA). It was launched in an Initial Coin Offering in August 2016, and has a max supply of 100 million tokens.

Iconomi offers officially managed indexes with different mixes of the top cryptocurrencies by market caps, and has plans to allow investors to become managers of and offer their own DAAs. The group aims to lower the barrier to entry of the cryptocurrency world by offering a easy and more passive way to invest in a spread of the top assets.

Decentralized cloud storage that is private, fail-proof, and affordable

Sia Coin

Sia Coin is a blockchain powered cloud storage that is private, redundantly stored, and affordable. Sia was launched in June 2015. Sia coin has no max supply cap - 30,000 new coins are created as block reward with each block. However, 0.1%-0.5% of the total supply is burned each year.

Files stored on the Sia network are broken up into tiny pieces, cryptographically secured, and redundantly stored on the nodes across the network. Being secured by the blockchain means no one, except the private key holder, can access any part of the file. The redundancy means no central points of failure and the files are always accessible(There is no server downtime or curruption, as there are always many copies.). A competitive and decentralized marketplace keeps Sia affordable-at the time of writing, Sia cost about a tenth of the price of Amazon S3.

Populous

Populous is a ecosystem that aims to make the invoice industry faster and more efficient. It was launched in an Initial Coin Offering in July 2017. The populous token(Poken) has a max supply of 53,252,246.

Populous aims streamline the invoicing industry by:

reducing delivery time - invoices created and sent through the network are accessible right away, anywhere in the worldspeeding up flow of money - allow invoices to be immediately payable, saving valuable time from the process and letting vendors access their money sooner for future tasks.

Populous Pokens are created as stable coins that are peggable to different global currencies. The network is built on the Ethereum blockchain, and is ERC20 compliant, which opens the possibility for interactivity with other Ethereum based smart contracts in the future.

Civic

Civic is an Ethereum based platform that makes personal identity more secure, readily available, and controllable.

Civic uses the combination of blockchain backed encryption, delivery, and biometric technology to create a system where personal identity related information can be seen only when its needed, by only the intended recipients. The documents/identifier can be generated on demand, and is cryptographically secured to prevent unwanted access by outside parties(v.s. traditional IDs, tickets, and espcially physical documents, which can be easily seen, stolen, and used). Biometric technology integration means no username and passwords to remember.

The Civic organization is also integrated with TransUnion, the credit reporting agency, and offers ID fraud monitoring and prevention programs.

The native Civic tokens are rewarded to "trustworthy" validators of identity information(ex. banks and utility companies) as well as users who upload their information to the system.

Civic was launched through an Initial Coin Offering in 2017, and has a total supply capped at 1 billion tokens.

The predecessor to Komodo - the private currency leg of the SuperNet project. Swappable for KMD at a rate of 1 to 50 Until Jan2018.

Bitcoin Dark

Bitcoin Dark is the predecessor to Komodo, which is the private currency leg of the SuperNet project. All of the developers for BitcoinDark have moved over to Komodo.There is currently a program that lets BTCD token holders to shift their BTCD coins over to KMD at a rate of 1BTCD to 50KMD. The swap will be open until January 2018

BTCD will occasionally float up, in ranking, past Komodo as it becomes more economical to buy BTCD and swap over instead of purchasing KMD directly.

The most friendly blockchain and cryptocurrency with a history of charitable contributions

Doge Coin

Doge coin was launched in December 2013. The coin was initially lauched as a joke but quickly gained a following. The currency chose to adopt a more fun and lighthearted persona(Shiba Inu mascot, comic sans typeface, meme-inspired writing) as an effort to distance itself from the existing crypto assets of that time, which were associated with darknet markets and drugs.

Dogecoin has since adopted the friendly persona and developed into a large community. The group has been recognized for their numerous charity fundraising efforts. In January 2014, the Dogecoin community raised money to send the Jamaican Bobsled team(who had qualified, but couldn't afford the travel costs)to the Sochi olympics. Later that year, the group raised 30,000USD to build a well in the Tana river basin in Kenya. The group has gone on to lead other charity efforts like distributing free socks to the homeless in Los Angeles and building temporary housing for family members of terminally ill children receiving treatment at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

Gnosis

Gnosis is an Ethereum based infrastructure that allows users to gather or contribute to outcome predictions for real life events.

Gnosis allow members of the network to speculate on decideable outcomes by staking their tokens on what they believe will be the actual outcome. Like any predictive market, correct predictions are rewarded while incorrect ones lose their stake. With Gnosis leveraging crowd-sourced wisdom, it is especially useful for things like price discovery of new or collectible products and market performance predictions(specially because the actual outcome is a result of the crowd mentality in the first place).

The GNO token has a max supply cap of 10million, and is used to generate WIZ tokens when the holder choose to "lock" an amount for 30-365days. Multipliers are applied for tokens that are locked up for longer durations. The secondary token, WIZ, can be used to pay for transactions and has a value pegged to 1usd. Fees can also be paid for with various other currencies.

Digibyte

Digibyte is a cyber security focused cyber security. In addition to being a currency, Digibyte is working to enable document signing and identity verification that is secured by the blockchain.

Digibyte was launched in 2014 with a max supply cap of 21 million tokens, and is secured through proof of work(mining). While most POW blockchain are secured through a hashing algorythm, Digibytes network is split in 5 equal parts, with each being minable through a different alogrithm to keep the network decentralized. Additionally, Digibyte is noted as being one of the first blockchains to enable Segregated Witness(SegWit - which removes some signature information from transactions to reduce size and cost while increasing speed).

smart contract powered decentralized token exchange protocol that any Ethereum based token can opt into

0x

0x is a Ethereum based, smart contract powered protocol that enables low friction token exchange between Ethereum based tokens. 0x was launched through an initial coin offering in 2017.

0x aims to create a more secure(no need for trusted central exchanges that can be hacked or dishonest) and cost/energy efficient way for tokens on the exponentially expanding Ethereum network to be traded. Order broadcasting and validating are done through a network of off-chain relayers for efficiency, while the final contract is validated on-chain for secure and fast settlement.

0x token holders make up a Dencentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO) that vote on changes and updates to the protocol. The protocol is publically accessible so that any Ethereum based decentralized app(DApp) can easily hook into and use it.

Blockchain as a Service platform that lets users easily create and run their own child chain and native token.

Ardor

Ardor is a platform that allows users to create their own child chain and native token. All of the child chains are secured by the Ardor mainnet, which itself is secured through proof of stake. Holders of the Native Ardor token can lock up their coins for a fixed amount of time for a chance to confirm new transactions and be reward with a portion of the fees in return.

Ardor makes numerous features available to all its child chains, including: Aliasing(user created names instead of public keys), coin shuffling, encrypted messaging, data storage, voting, and built-in marketplace.

Ardor uses Nxt technology and was developed by Jelurida, the company behind Nxt. The network was launched in 2016 with a total supply capped at 100 million tokens.

Syscoin

Syscoin is a cryptocurrency with a decentralized marketplace built directly into the wallet. The decentralized market promises near instant payment upon purchase, near zero fees and no downtime. Payments on the marketplace can be made using Syscoin, Bitcoin, or Zcash. Syscoin features additional benefits including arbitrated escrow, price pegging, encrypted messaging, digital certificates, and aliases that can be used in place of traditional blockchain public keys.

Syscoin was launch in 2014 with a max supply cap of 888,000,000 tokens, and is merge-mineable with Bitcoin.

Bancor

Bancor is an Ethereum based decentralized exchange protocol launched by the Israel based Bancor foundation in a 2017 Initial Coin Offering. The protocol aims to create a more connected cryptocurrency/Ethereum token ecosystem that is more liquid, stable, and secure. There is no cap to the supply of Bancor Network Token(BNT) and new BNTs are created as additional reserve currencies, such as Ether, is deposited into the network.

The Bancor protocol is powered by a system of smart tokens that facilitate trading between Ethereum based tokens. Smart tokens hold other tokens in reserve, and enable any party to instantly purchase or liquidate the smart token in exchange for one of its reserve tokens. The trading is facilitated by the smart token’s contract, at a continuously calculated price, according to a formula which balances buy and sell volumes. Smart tokens can be created to hold multiple tokens as reserve, which means they can be created and used as ETFs that hold a portfolio of various tokens making up a user specified percentage of the holding.

Additionally, the Bancor protocol includes a simplified interface that lets anyone create their own "community currency" by answer a short series of questions. Like other currencies held in the smart tokens, these community tokens can be liquidated for their reserve currency at anytime.

An Ethereum based gambling platform with lower price and better transparency.

Edgeless

Edgeless is an Ethereum based gambling platoform that aims to be a fast, fully transparent, and decentralized edgeless casino. The network was launched in an Initial Coin Offering in March 2017.

Speed: Traditional blockchain based gambling either rely on decentralized Random Number generation(RNG) to facilitate fair gambling(this takes up to minutes per bet and incurs high gas cost), or in house RNG generation which is an opaque process that can be cheated. Edgeless uses a hybrid model that generates the number in house for a cheap and fast process while recording and broadcasting the process on the blockchain to make it fully transparent and auditable.

Transparency: In additional to auditable RNG, Edgeless eleminate the house edge that usually favors casinos and other gambling establishments(therefore the name Edgeless) and rely solely on imperfect player strategy to generate revenue. Research have shown that a 0% house edge combined with player mistakes still results in an house advantage of around 0.8%.

Edgeless token: Edgeless tokens act as a reusable lottery ticket that holders can submit to the Edgeless Lounge contract, where 40% of the monthly profits are randomly awarded to participanting token holders. The other 60% is returned to the dev team where it will be used to fund maintenance and further work.

SingularDTV

SingularDTV is an Ethereum based ecosystem that cuts out the gatekeepers and middlemen to empower artists and content creators in the entertainment industry through decentralized resource, tech, and funding platforms and applications. SingularDTV was launched through an Initial Coin Offering in 2016 and has a max supply capped at 1 billion SNGLS tokens.

The singularDTV ecosystem is powered by its 11 modules:

TOKIT - lets artist and creators easily tokenize their work and set the rules for rights, revenue, royalties, and revenue associated with it.EtherVision - the decentralized distribution portal where artist and creators can create their own channel and begin to distribute their work once it is tokenized.Launch Pad - A kickstarter/indiegogo like platform on SingularDTV where content creators can begin to secure funding and interact with audiences while the project is in development.Decentralized Exchange - A decentralized exchange for all of the project tokens to be bought/sold/exchanged.CODEX - The official R&D group working to continually improve the technologies powering the SingularDTV ecosystem.Digital Marketing - A marketing application that lives inside the EtherVision module with a menu of marketing options to help content creators get their work noticed.Product Service + Equipment rental - Airbnb like P2P equipment and service rental.SingularDTV Management - Smart Contract powered talent management.Legal Repository - Incorruptible database of project related legal agreements, secured by smart contracts.Union Interface - Connection with existing unions in the industry to ensure small players can still acces all of the resources they need.

(The original singular dtv whitepaper has been obsoleted by recent updates and has been removed)

GameCredits(GAME)

Currency for games and in game content purchases across an ecosystem of thousands of games

GameCredits

GameCredits is a cryptocrency, created by the GameCredits company, that is used to purchase games and in-game content through a faster and more secure blockchain powered system. GameCredits was launched in 2015 as GamerCoin, and is secured through proof of work(mining). There is a max supply capped at 84,000,000 GAME tokens.

low cost- while traditional gateways like applepay takes a cut of up to 30%, GameCredits let developers and seller keep 90% of the proceeds. frictionless- traditional payment gateways require gamers to complete the transaction outside of the actual game while GameCredits can be spend inside the actual game. universal- GameCredits purchased and earned in games can be used across thousands of other games, which increase their value and lowers the mental barrier to entry. speed- Gamecredit purchases clears and arrives in the sellers wallet in hours, instead of the industry standard of 60 days. secure- Gamecredit is secured by the underlying blockchain and eliminates fraudulent purchase chargebacks. anonymity- Players can purchase contents anonymously.

GameCreidts VS MobileGo : Both GameCredits and MobileGo are created by the GameCredits company and research into one often leads to the other. While both are created by the same company for the same industry, they are built with a focus on interaction between different groups. GameCredits focuses on transactions between game creators and gamers, facilitating such transactions as game and in game content purchase, while MobileGo focuses more on the P2P aspect of the ecosystem and facilitates things like P2P sales of virtual items and decentralized matches.

Currency used to pay for smart contract interactions on the NEO blockchain.

GAS

GAS is 1 of 2 native tokens on the NEO blockchain, used to pay for smart contract interactions. GAS is generated by the NEO wallet in accordance to the amount of NEO held in it and how long it's held. The total supply of GAS is capped at 100 million and each GAS token can be subdivided into 1 billion units.

NEO was created as Antshares in 2014. It is China's first open source blockchain. There is a max supply of 100 million NEO tokens.

NEO allows developers to create smart contracts in such popular languages as Java, C#, and GO. Interaction on the NEO blockchain and smart contracts on it are paid for with GAS(which is listed on several exchanges as a separate currency).

NEO operates on the Byzentine Fault Tolerance and "rewards" holders of the currency in return for validating transactions on the network, similar to Proof of Stake currencies.

Ethereum based onchain decentralized exchange and payment API with plans to allow crosschain trades and payments.

Kyber Network

Kyber is an Ethereum based decentralized exchanged contract/network launched through an Initial Coin Offering in 2017. There is a max supply of 226,000,000 KNC tokens.

Kyber Network allows cross chain trades with other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and ZCash as well as receiving any token payment as a user defined Ethereum based token. In addition to cross chain trading, conversion, and payment acceptance, Kyber allows near instant transactions that settle as soon as it is recorded on the blockchain. Once the mainnet is lauched, KyberNetwork plans to implement relays, Polkadot, and Cosmos to allow conversion of other currencies such as Bitcoin and Zcash.

A small amount of the native token - KyberNetwork Crystal Tokens(KNC) is paid by the reserve managers(who secure different tokens as reserve to ensure liquidity) to the KyberNetwork for the right to help facilitate the trade and earn the associated profits. A large portion(to be determined) of the KNC token is burned, while the rest is rewarded to the different facilitating parties of that trade. The burning is intended to drive down the total supply of KNC tokens, making the remaining supply more scarece and valuable, therefore rewarding those that help launch and build the network.

Walton Chain

Walton Chain is a China based currency/platoform hybrid of RFID tech and blockchain that facilitates seemsless transaction of data and value across an ecosystem of people, devices, and systems. WTC was launched through an Initial Coin Offering in November 2016. There is a max supply of 100,000,000 WTC tokens.

Walton chain will be rolled out in 4 stages. 1.0 will marry the groups patented RFID technology with blockchain security and internet data to create more secure payment and data transfer.2.0 will focus on the clothing, retail, and logistics industry. Using walton chain & sidechains to create seemless communication transfer of data.3.0 will focus on the manufacturing - improving quality and inventory management, tracking, and documentation throughout the entire process.4.0 will open up the Walton chain for general purpose use, where anything can be logged and represented on the blockchain. This is intended to facilitate an ecosystem where information freely flows between the digital and physical world.

While Walton Chain will allow and need side chains, all fees and transfer of value on all chains will need to be paid with the main WTC token from the main chain. Holders of the WTC token will also receive a portion of the network transaction fees as dividend.

Cardano

Cardano is a crypto currency and smart contract platform launched through a presale by the IOHK(Input Output Hong Kong) group in 2015. The initial presale targeted a mostly Japanese group of investors(90+%) Public trading started in 2017 through Bittrex. Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of IOHK, served as the CEO of Ethereum foundation for 6 months from 2013-2014. ADA, the native token has a max supply capped at 45,000,000,000 tokens.

Cardano is built from scratch and secured by proof of stake through the Ouroboros protocol. The blockchain will be build in layers with payment/settlement behind the base layer and additional layers that support smart contracts and Decentralized Applications(DApps) built on top so each can be optimized for its intended purpose

The Daedalius wallet is built for the Cardano ADA token. One of the novel features of the wallet is its Check Point feature, which lets you sync the blockchain from the a point of your choosing(This means a user can start syncing the blockchain from when they first started using the currency, VS syncing the entire chain, like classic wallets.).

Salt

Salt is an membership based lending and borrowing platform built on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform lets users access cash by depositing a cryptocurrency collatoral, similar to a pawn shop. The network and its tokens were launched in 2017 with the total token supply capped at 120,000,000 units.

The salt platform allows members to borrow money without the need for credit check. Instead, the user deposits an amout of cryptocurrency and borrow cash against that. The network aims to keep the value of the loan to be around 80% of the collatoral crytpocurrency deposited. If the value of cryptocurrency held as collatoral drops in price, the network will ask the borrower to deposite additional units of their collatoral currency. If no action is taken by the borrower, SALT initiates a partial liquidation of the collatoral to return the ratio of borrowed money back to 80%

Membership to the network will be priced in units of SALT tokens. 3 Tiers of memberships exist.

Tron

Tron is an decentralized entertainment content ecosystem created by Justin Sun, creator of the chinese PeiWo app(Translates roughly to "accompany me" sometimes called Chinese SnapChat), where users are paired based on interests and an analyzation of a 10 second voice recording. The token and blockchain was launched in 2017 through an Initial Coin Offering with the max supply capped at 100 billion tokens.

Monacoin

Monacoin was the first Japan based cryptocurrency(since no one really know if Satoshi of Bitcoin is actually Japanese). This blockchain is secured by proof of work(mining), and was launched in early 2014. The currency was launched with no premine, and has a supply capped at 105,120,000 tokens. Segregated Witness was activated on this blockchain in March 2017.

The Monappy website is a marketplace and wallet that facilitate the use to Monacoin in several ways. Monappy can be linked to Twitch accounts to allow sending and receiving of realtime, in-game tipping with notification. Monappy also includes an online marketplace where monacoin can be used to buy anything from fruit, to products, to tipping artists for artwork. Another part of the Mona ecosystem is Askmona, a Japanese 4chan like forum website with monacoin tipping built in. Monacoin adoption is growing in Japan with numerous merchants, such as ARK(electronics chain store) accepting Monacoin as a form of payment and tipping bots that facilitate the use of the currency on various social media.

Binance Coin

Binance coin is an Ethereum based token launched by the China based exchance Binance. The currency can be used to pay for fees on the exchange at a discounted rate during the first 4 years after issuance. The token was lanched through an Initial Coin Offering(ICO) in 2017, with the max supply capped at 200million tokens.

Binance token holders can use the token to pay for any fee on the Binance exchange. Fees payed in binance coin will be discounted by 50% in year 1, 25% in year 2, 12.5% during year 3, and 6.75% in year 4. Additionally, Binance plans to use 20% of its quarterly profits to buy back available BNB tokens until 100 million(or 50% of the total supply) is bought back and burned. The group has announced that it will be building a decentralized exchange in the future, and that the 50% of the supply that remains will be used to help facilitate transactions on the decentralized platform.

China based blockchain and smartcontract platform with a focus on the advertising and the entertainent industry.

ATM Chain

ATM(Attention Token of Media) chain is a China based smart contract platform that aims to create an open digital media ecosystem with a focus on improving and streamlining transactions and the exchange of metrics between advertisers and viewers. The token was launched in 2017 on the Decent network through an Initial Coin Offering with a max supply capped at 10,000,000,000 ATM tokens.

Like Basic Attention Token(BAT), ATM aims to make the advertising process(especially around media in this case) cheaper by cutting out the many layers of middlemen, and more effective by incentivizing the viewer directly for their attention. Viewers of advertisements are financially rewarded with a small amount of token in return for their attention and data. Content creators and other space owners where the advertisements live can be paid directly, which again cuts out the middle persons to make this process more cost effective.

Unlike Basic Attention Token, ATM will also focus on many China-centric mediums such as Wechat, APPs, and cinema integrations.

Vertcoin

Vertcoin is a cryptocurrency launched in 2014 with a max supply of 84million coins. The currency has no premine and is fairly distributed through mining. The main focus of this group is to resist centralization to create and preserve a cryptocurrency "for the people".

Vertcoin has successfully undergone numerous hardforks and adopted new mining algorithms as Asic chip development and botnets were discovered(moving from Scrypt-N to Lyra2RE to Lyra2REV2). The group aims to preserve the check and balance, fairness, and openess of a decentralized blockchain as it was originally described by Satoshi Nakamoto. To further promote decentralization, the group has a 1-click miner in development that would lower the barrier to entry for mining Vertcoin.

Besides decentralization, the currency has been an early adopter of ease-of-use features like SegWit(smaller transaction size by removing parts of the transaction signature), Lightning Network(payment channel that allows minimal fees and near instant transaction), and atomic swap(frictionless and instant swapping between certain different currencies). (The latter 2 are in active development as of this writing).

i2P and Tor powered privacy cryptocurrency with fast transaction times

Verge

Verge is a privacy focused cryptocurrency launched in 2014 as "DogecoinDark". The coin rebranded as Verge in 2016 and has a max supply of 16.5 Billion coins. 9 billion coins were release in 2014, and 1 billion is release every year after that until the entire supply is publicly available.

Verge focuses on privacy by hiding the users identity through the use of i2p(The Invisible Internet Project. Overlay network and darknet that allows applications to send messages to each other pseudonymously and securely) and Tor(onion routing. Hides identifiable information of sender) networks. To prevent centralization of the network, the currency is secure by proof of work that is split equally across 5 different algorithms. Namely Scrypt, X17, Lyra2rev2, myr-groestl and blake2s. All 5 algorithms have a 30-second block target block time.

On the usability front, Verge integrates SPV(Simple Payment Verification) and Electrum wallet(server hosted blockchain to eliminate sync time) to enable confirmation time of around 5 seconds. The Verge blockchain is distant relative of bitcoin, which means it will be able to incorporate many of the upcoming features of BTC such as RSK smart contract and Atomic Swap.

Electroneum

Electroneum is a mobile focused cryptocurrency launched in late 2017 through an Initial Coin Offering(ICO). The coin is based on the cryptonote algorithm(like Monero and Bytecoin, which lends this currency some privacy features such as a blockchain analysis resistance), and has a max supply of 21 billion coins.

Electroneum aims to drive greater adoptability of the currency by making it more usable on a mobile device. In addition to the GPU and CPU mining found on traditional blockchains, Electroneum also allows small scale mining on mobile devices by running background tasks through their native app. The group plans to make the currency even more mobile-centric down the road by working with mobile gaming and gambling platforms to adopt ETN as a form of faster, native payment.

A digital content and access plaform that's a crossover between Bitcoin and BitTorrent

LBRY

LBRY is a Bitcoin and Bit-torrent inspired platform to couple access and payment to digital content over a decentralized and distributed network that is community controlled. The first lines of code were written in late 2014 and the blockchain was launched in July 2016. Director Jeremy Kauffman, developer Jimmy Kiselak, and marketing director Mike Vine are primary team members.

LBRY is comprised of both a protocol (block chain and data network) as well as services (applications & devices, discovery, distribution, and settlement), Similar to a domain name, participants bid on a LBRY “name”. Whoever controls a name gets control over what it contains, declares access cost for the specific content, who gets paid, and where to find the content. These names are sold in a continuous running auction. The LBRY team is still in beta, but they expect to give centralized content distributors a run for their money using peer-to-peer protocol paired with a digital currency and transparent decentralized ledger.

LBRY plans to release 1 Billion LBC over the next 20 years and that will exponentially decay after the first year’s 100M LBC are mined. 10% of those coins are kept as operational costs and profit, 10% more to organizations including charities and partners, 20% for adoption programs, and the remaining 60% earned by users via mining. The small mining pool is expecting to leverage lightning networks when the team feels that is ready, as they expect off chain settlement to be necessary once the network is large enough.

*LBRY has a large number of contributors. At the time of this writing, Github shows 94 open issues with 275 closed, 13 open pull requests with 562 closed. They have seven people and 23 contributors on the project’s 39 repositories. Version .17 was release just a few days prior.

Power Ledger

Power Ledger is a blockchain powered p2p electrity trading ecosystem that aims to lower electricity cost for buyers by democratizing the market while incentivizing the adoption of renewable and clean energy. POWR is one of 2 tokens that exists on the network, with Sparkz being the other. There is a max supply of 1 Billion POWR tokens. The coin was launched in an Initial Coin Offering.

Power Ledger allow groups and individuals that generate renewable energy to sell their excess on a decentralized marketplace. The network runs on 2 tokens: POWR token, which works like a software license to allow holders access to the powerledger network, and the lower level Sparkz tokens, which can be obtained by trading POWR tokens, that is used to represent a tokenized unit of electricity in the marketplace.

The network has ran through numerous successful tests in Australia and has attracted partnerships and interest from large energy companies such as India's Mahindra and Australia's Origin Energy.

Bitcoin Gold

Bitcoin Gold is a fork of Bitcoin launched in 2017 that aims to create a more decentralized version of Bitcoin, as SHA256 ASIC miners are available for both Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Cash. The coin has a max supply of 21 million - like the original Bitcoin. An amount equal to the supply of available bitcoins, at the time of the fork, was airdropped to current holders, while the rest will be mined organically.

The main features that set Bitcoin Gold apart is 1. BTG is mined and secured by the equihash algorithm instead of the SHA256 used for Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. 2. Mining difficulty is retargeted every block to more dynamically adapt to the network mining power versus the current 2 week cycle that exists on Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Like Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Gold creates a system where every single computer/node in the network stores and validates every transaction ever made. The entire history of the network is stored as the blockchain and kept by every full node. The redundancy means data is uncorruptable without a change being done to more than 51% of the network at around the same time.

New coins are created by miners(computers/nodes) through hashing(solving math problems based on previous answers), which validates transations and secures the network.

crypto platform and currency with core level features like decentralized exchange, marketplace, and voting system built in

NXT

NXT is a cryptocurrency and techplatform launched in an Initial Coin Offering in late 2013. The currency aims to be a more complete cryptocurrency economic system. There is a max and circulating supply of 1 billion NXT tokens.

NXT was built from scratch, in JAVA, at a time when most altcoins were forks from Bitcoin. NXT stood out by being secured by proof of stake, having an on chain decentralized exchange, a digital goods market place, and voting system built in. The blockchain even has some data transfer capabilities built in (allows up to 1000 bytes of data to be transferred). Additionally, the NXT Blockchain Creations kit is available to allow anyone to adapt the core NXT code to create their own cryptocurrency, in return for 10% of the adapted token being distributed to NXT token holders.

XRB

RaiBlocks is a cryptocurrency created and freely distributed in 2017 through manual mining (people solving captchas). The currency was created by Colin LeMahieu and aims to solve the limited scalability and high transactions fee exists with most cryptocurrencies by facilitating free(a small amount of mining at the moment of transaction) and near instant (generally less than 10 seconds) transactions. There is a max and circulating supply of 133,248,290 XRB tokens, and no more will ever be created.

Around the time of RaiBlocks creation, high demand and limited scalability have increased the average transaction times and fees in popular cryptocurrencies. RaiBlocks uses a novel blocklattice architecture - where each account has its own blockchain, to deliver near instantaneous transaction speed and unlimited scalability. Each user has their own blockchain, allowing them to update it asynchronously to the rest of the network, resulting in fast transactions with minimal work. Transactions keeps track of account balances rather than transaction amounts, allowing aggressive database pruning without compromising security.